Add To The List Of People Who Don't Like Hugo Chavez

Business leaders accused President Hugo Chavez on Sunday of attempting to strangle businesses that rely on imports by making them pay more for foreign-made products.

They said Chavez is irresponsibly allowing the black-market rate for U.S. dollars to spiral upward, which increases costs for close to half of the country’s importers.

“The government doesn’t consider it a priority,” said Alfonzo Rivas, a businessman and president of the non-governmental group Cedice, which promotes individual and economic freedoms.

Expect the police state to speak back with a vengeance, and imprison business critics of Chavez’s economic program. It would be in keeping with the regime’s response to just about any dissent from the government line in Venezuela.